Did you know that Iowa is ranked as the second largest agricultural producing state, bringing in $29 billion in 2017?
Did you know that Iowa is ranked first nationally in corn production, egg production, ethanol production, and pork production?
Did you know that Iowa is in the top 10 states in all crop production, cattle and calves, turkey production, cheese production, and red meat production?
We clearly love Iowa and are very proud of our state, and we think you should be, too! We took a look at the most recent United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service census information to compile some agricultural information about our great state and our nation. Read on to learn more!
Iowa has a total of 36 million acres. About 85% of that land is used for farmland. Most farmland in Iowa (26.5 million acres) is used to grow row crops. This is mostly corn and soybeans. Iowa farmers also grow lots of forages (1 million acres), corn for silage (278,370 acres), and oats for grain (36,580 acres).
On this 30,563,878 acres of farmland, the state of Iowa has approximately 86,104 farms, owned by 143,447 farmers. The average farm size in Iowa is 355 acres. The number of farms is down about 3% since 2012, and the average farm size is up about 3% since 2012.
In Iowa, just over 1/3 of farmers are women. This is pretty consistent with national numbers (36% of farmers are women nationally, compared to 34.2% in Iowa).
Age of farmers nationally is also fairly consistent with Iowa numbers. In Iowa, about 58% of producers are between ages 35 and 64. About 33% of producers are over the age of 65. About 9% of producers are under the age of 35.
Nationally, 8% of farmers are under 35, 58% of farmers are age 35-64, and 34% are over age 65. However, there seems to be a trend that producers in southern states tend to be older than in other states. The average age of the U.S. farmer is 57.5 years.
In terms of economic impact, Iowa contributes 7% of the nation’s total agricultural sales. 52% of Iowa’s agricultural sales are attributed to livestock, poultry, and products. 48% is attributed to crops. This is interesting to me, considering that almost 87% of our farmland in the state is attributed to crops. However, this is pretty close to national percentages, with the crop and livestock split being 50/50 in 2017.
Of livestock, poultry, and products, the largest earning commodity is hogs and pigs at $7.7 billion. Second on the list is cattle and calves at $4.7 billion, and third is poultry and eggs at $1.6 billion. Almost all of the crops grown in Iowa are grains, and these earned the state over $13 billion in 2017.
So what are the implications of these numbers? Why do we see some of these trends?
Iowa is really an incredible state because our soils and climate have created a kind of Goldilocks zone for growing row crops like corn and soybeans. This ends up translating really well into raising livestock that eat corn and soybeans, like pigs, chickens, turkeys, and cattle. Animals like pigs and poultry live inside to protect them from predators and the environment, making their physical footprint on the land very small. Animals like goats, sheep, and cattle can live on the more marginal land that farmers don’t want to disturb with row crops, giving us more high-value food without taking away from the valuable row crop land.
We can also see that agriculture brings lots of money to the economy. In Iowa, 1 in 5 jobs is attributed to agriculture. However, only 4.5% Iowans are farmers. Most of these jobs are not on the farm. Farmers need agronomists, veterinarians, engineers, electricians, marketers, geneticists, sales staff, mechanics, insurance providers, bank loan officers, and dozens of other professionals to support them. These are real jobs that are available all over the state and can employ our young Iowans as long as they know where to look.
Whether you’re just looking for some fun facts to tell over dinner, or you’re looking for a career change, I hope you found something interesting to ruminate on!
-Chrissy
Sources:
Iowa Agriculture Literacy 
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Thank you good to learn about where some of USA food comes from. My grandson is coming to college in your state and I was interested in learning about it. Seems like a nice place to live. Again thanks.
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